Franne Whitney Nelson , Ed.T., CSDS, is a native Vermonter, an Educational Thanatologist, Sudden Death TraumaSpecialistTM and director of Death Education Consulting in Montpelier, Vermont. She is a nationally known death and grief expert and lecturer who specializes in the biochemistry of grief and how grief differs according to the manner of death. The Death Lady is the moniker bestowed on her by the Vermont State Police in 1995 when she started their Sudden Death Trauma™ Program.

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NDE Radio: Franne Whitney NelsonFranne Whitney Nelson is a Sudden Death Trauma Specialist who works with police and others when someone must break the sad news that a family member has died unexpectedly. To quote a recent article about her in the Stowe Reporter, Her work has earned her the nickname the Death Lady, but clients say she is heaven sent.

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Franne Whitney NelsonFranne Whitney Nelson, Ed.T., CSDS, is a native Vermonter, an Educational Thanatologist, Sudden Death TraumaSpecialistTM and director of Death Education Consulting in Montpelier, Vermont. She is a nationally known death and grief expert and lecturer who specializes in the biochemistry of grief and how grief differs according to the manner of death.
Franne's experience in thanatology spans over 25 years and ranges from working for seven years as a civilian contract employee with the Vermont State Police making death notifications and doing crisis intervention for family members of the victims, to founding a hospice that she directed for five years, as well as serving as hospice director for a chain of nursing homes. In the course of her work with the Vermont State Police, she developed the nation's first state police Sudden Death Trauma ProgramTM and trained all Vermont troopers in dealing with sudden, unexpected death; death notification; body viewing; dealing with survivor-victims; and coping with the troopers' grief on and off the job. She also instructed at the Vermont Police Academy.
Throughout her career, Franne has made over 400 sudden death notifications with law enforcement and in hospital emergency departments; created and carried out a five-year follow-up study of 1626 grieving survivors whose loved ones had died from expected, sudden or sudden, unexpected death; and has hands-on experience with 542 terminally ill people.